§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons currently serving a prison sentence in England and Wales will be subject upon completion of their sentence to an expulsion or deportation order to(a) Ireland, (b) states that are party to the European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and (c) elsewhere. [20285]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienReliable information on those persons currently serving a prison sentence who may, on completion of their sentence, be subject to deportation action can be obtained only through examination of individual case records. Such information is, therefore, available only at disproportionate cost. Persons subject to deportation action are entitled to appeal against their stated removal destination and, hence, the issue of which country a person is to be removed to will not be resolved until their relevant appeal rights have been exhausted. In practice, reliable information on removal destination is not available centrally until removal has been effected. I regret that the information requested is not, therefore, available.